FOOTBALL: Madonna Bolsters Playoff Positioning by Routing Toronto

October 28, 2012

WEIRTON - Ross Comis scored twice on the ground and threw two touchdown passes, while Nick Ossman also rushed for two scores to lead the Weirton Madonna to a 48-6 victory against Toronto on Saturday night at Jimmy Carey Stadium.

The victory boosts the Blue Dons record to 8-1 and solidified their hold on fifth place in the Class A state rankings. It also set the stage for a red letter date with undefeated Clay-Battelle next week.

The Cee Bees, ranked right behind the Blue Dons at sixth, will visit Friday. The game was originally scheduled to be played next Saturday, but was switched to Friday to make things easier deciding opponents for the West Virginia playoffs.

Comis rushed for 174 yards on only seven carries including touchdowns runs of 9 and 21 yards. He also had a 75-yard scamper from scrimmage. He was deadly with his arm hitting 8 of 12 for 86 yards including touchdown passes of 15 yards to Elliot Nero and 20 yards to Will Bowser.

"Our defense keeps getting better and better every week," Madonna coach Doug Taylor said. "We put a lot of time into it. We are getting our reads better. We're disguising some stuff, too, which makes it a lot better for us. We've got some good players on defense. We try to get our best athletes out there on the defensive side of the football."

The lone mistake for the Madonna defense was a 40-yard touchdown run by Toronto's freshman quarterback Blaze Glenn, who lived up to his first name turning around left end and shifting into high gear down the sideline.

"That is a well-coached team," Taylor said. "They came out ready to play and caught us in a little hiccup to put a touchdown on the board. It actually woke our guys up a little bit and after that they played pretty strong."

Madonna set the tone early stopping Toronto for a net loss of six yards in three plays to force a punt.

The Blue Dons put the ball in play at the Red Knight 46 and scored four plays later with Comis snaking his way over left tackle from nine yards out. Madonna lined up to have sophomore Matt Green kick the extra point, but Anthony Antinone, the holder, had trouble with the snap and rolled to his left finding Grant Retton in the end zone for a 2-point conversion.

Toronto came right back with its next possession and marched from its own 35 to the Madonna 40 where Glenn picked his way through the Madonna defense and found daylight around the left end for the 40-yard score. The Red Knights attempted to tie the game with a 2-point conversion but a Blaze Glenn pass fell incomplete.

The Blue Dons took command for good on the next possession as junior Marcello Biondillo ran back the Red Knight kickoff 52 yards from his own 17 to the Toronto 31. Four plays later, Comis found Nero open on a swing pass and the speedy junior outraced the Toronto defenders to the end zone. The play covered 15 yards. Green's kick made the score 15-6.

"Madonna is a lot bigger than us and better than us," said Toronto coach Eric Meek, whose team finished the season with a record of 3-7. "I hope they do well with their big game next week and hopefully in the playoffs.

"We're a young team. This was about our seniors (Toronto has just five seniors on the roster) we wanted to kind of focus on them. We got a lot of kids back and we want to focus in the offseason to get bigger and stronger and just keep plugging away."

The Blue Dons scored three times in the second period.

Ossman took a pitch and raced left to the end zone from the 3-yard line and burst straight up the middle from eight yards out.

Then, Comis capped the first half scoring with a 21-yard keeper through the right side of his line.

Those scores gave the Blue Dons a 35-6 advantage at the intermission.

Madonna had the opening possession of the second half and Comis ended a Blue Dons drive with a 20-yard touchdown toss to Bowser to increase the score to 41-6.

The Madonna reserves played the rest of the way.

Antinone, who replaced Comis at quarterback, scored on the first play of the fourth quarter with a 27-yard keeper up the middle.